1. Field of the Invention
The invention is concerned with radix converters and is particularly designed utilizing automata.
2. Description of the Prior Art.
In digital computer systems when a data entry and display panel is located remotely from the computer, generally the decimal information to and from the panel is transmitted serially in the form of binary coded deciman digits. Radix conversion to and from the required binary base is often performed by the software of the computer necessitating utilizing expensive computer time as well as memory space for the requisite programs. Alternatively the data panel is at times designed to utilize a base 8 radix for the entry and display of the data avoiding the necessity for software radix conversion but resulting in increased computer operator difficulty.
Hardware radix converters have been utilized in the prior art but these have generally been expensive because heretofore there hadn't been any simple logical relationship between the binary and binary coded decimal codes. The prior art hardware radix converters normally utilized both decimal and binary counters, adders, shift registers and translation matrices which achieved the radix conversion in an indirect manner. These prior art implementations are normally dependent on the length of the numbers to be converted and generally did not provide a meaningful result until all of the digits of the number to be transformed had been applied to the converter. Many of these prior art devices required high speed clocks relative to the system basic bit clock for time subdivision.